All posts tagged eco-seal

Consumer demand for products that reassure them of their virtue has been a big thing for a long time, from dolphin-free tuna to forest-friendly tissue paper.

And in the era of An Inconvenient Truth and carbon footprint craze, one trend has been particularly powerful: so-called eco-seals, the little ticks of approval guaranteeing a product’s environmental credentials, found on the packaging of almost anything available in the supermarket.

As the WSJ reported back in 2009, hundreds of different seals have emerged, backed by parties ranging from government agencies and respected institutions to fly-by-night online operators who will give your product the tick, no-questions-asked, for the payment of a handsome fee.

Companies themselves also developed their own in-house eco-seals, effectively another part of their branding, but which they say reflects the steps they take to meet environmental goals. And with all these different seals out there, and none rising above the noise and becoming the dominant one, which eco-seal — or type of seal — do consumers actually pay attention to when making their decisions?

Barbara Bickart at the Boston University School of Management and Julie Ruth at the Rutgers School of Business had the same question in mind, and ran a couple of experiments to check it out. In “Green Eco-­seals and Advertising Persuasion,” they published their (early) take on the answer – some interesting details, after the jump. Read More »